Director Jang Hang-Jun (left) and writer Kim Eun-Hee, a married couple. Kyunghyang Shinmun file photo.

As the film ‘The Man Who Lives With the King’ is on the verge of surpassing ten million viewers, director Jang Hang-Jun’s impoverished newlywed days are being revisited.

On the broadcast on the 4th of tvN’s ‘You Quiz on the Block,’ Yoon Jong-Shin shared a special connection with the couple Jang Hang-Jun and Kim Eun-Hee.

That day, Yoon Jong-Shin confessed that in his thirties, he “challenged himself to production but lost all the money he had earned in the 1990s and ended up with about 600 million won in debt,” revealing the financial hardships he had faced.

Back then, the place Yoon Jong-Shin often visited was Jang Hang-Jun’s home. Yoon recalled, “When I went in there, it felt like a utopia,” and said, “I was worn out by life, but even though they were desperately poor, they looked so happy. A guileless couple was living there.” He added, “Going to that house was an escape for me.”

Following Yoon Jong-Shin’s remarks, Jang Hang-Jun’s impoverished newlywed years are again drawing attention.

Screenshot from YouTube ‘Sherlock Hyun-Jun’.

In 2024, Jang Hang-Jun appeared on YouTube’s ‘Sherlock Hyun-Jun’ and talked about the best home of his life among the places he had lived. Jang Hang-Jun began, “If you go to Banghwa-dong, there is a place called Cheongsol Apartment in the Banghwa 3rd Complex. That was my first newlywed home. We lived there on a jeonse lease. Back then, in that neighborhood, even jeonse was cheap; everything was cheap.”

He said, “I lived there with my wife, the writer Kim Eun-Hee, just the two of us. If someone asked, ‘When were you happiest?’ it would be then. We went to see the newlywed home, and even though there was nothing there and it was dusty, the sunlight came in and it felt so good. I loved that we had a space no one could enter without our permission; not even the president could come in.”

He went on, “Eun-Hee and I would go down to the store below to buy beer, Saeukkang shrimp snacks and the like, spread newspapers on the floor, and keep drinking. We did not even have a blanket, and the two of us slept on the bare floor. After I became a director, we wrapped up our jeonse life and lived there for about four years. I think that was the poorest time of my life, but ironically, my best memories are from that home.”

He also expressed affection for his wife. Jang Hang-Jun said, “Back then, Eun-Hee was so cute. I lived thinking, ‘How should I tease her all day?’ We really lived in such a fun way.”